The only Slytherin
by EmmaRose99
Summary: Twenty years after the Battle of Hogwarts Slytherin has no students, and hasn't had for years. That is until muggleborn Iris comes along. But life can be hard when the whole world assumes that you are evil just because a talking hat put you in a forgotten house.
1. Making a friend

**A/N: So here we are, with a new story, who is ready? If you like this story please follow, favourate and review, especially review. This is set 25 years after the Battle of Hogwarts. The golden trio don't have kids and Teddy doesn't exist. Harry and Ron aren't aruors. And Fred didn't die. Why? Because I say so ;-P Seriously though, I hope you enjoy and don't feel afraid to let me know what you think!**

"Are you sure you want to go?"

"Yes mum, I have to do this." Iris halfheartedly explained. She had been trying to explain why she was doing this everyday since Headmistresses McGonagall's visit. But her mum just didn't get it. She had the chance to learn magic! She couldn't see why her parents were worried.

"There they are." Her dad said walking in. He looked between Iris and his wife, "Are you trying to convince her not to go again?" He asked, turning to his wife.

"Not now Glen." Her mum said jokingly, "help us pack her stuff will you. Go and get the wash bag from the bathroom." Glen left the room to go do exactly mum turned to her. "If you sure sure that this is what you want, then I will support you all the way."

"Thanks mum."

* * *

><p>"So does it say how we get to Platform 9 and 34?" Her dad asked. They stood between platforms 9 and 10.

Iris scanned the letter of acceptance to Hogwarts once again. "Nope." She popped the p.

"Let me see." Iris handed the letter to her mum.

"Hang on a sec." Iris said, having spotted a girl carrying a owl in a cage. She ran over to the girl. "Excuse me are you going to catch the Hogwarts express?" Iris asked.

"Yes." The girl said turning to face Iris. Iris took in the girls dark face, big friendly brown eyes and afro hair that had been braided in to tiny plats all along her head.

Iris smiled. "Brilliant! I was just wondering if you could show my parents and I exactly where Platform 9 and 3/4 is?"

"Of course. My name is Kahina by the way." Iris felt herself warming to Kahina already, she could tell that they were going to be good friends. "Do you want to bring your parents over and I will show you?"

Iris went and got her parents, and brought them over to where Kahina was standing. "This is Kahina." Iris introduced.

"Lovely to meet you." Kahina said with a genuine smile. "I am guessing you are muggles?"

Iris' mother recognized the wizard word from McGonagalls visit. she bristled slightly. "What makes you say that?" She asked in a semi friendly tone.

Kahina picked up on the tenseness in the question, and sort to rectify it. "Only because you don't know how to get to the platform, I doubt there is a witch or wizard in Britain who doesn't know how to get in."

"I see." Iris' mother said relaxing. "So how do we..." She trailed off.

"It is quite simple, you have to run in to that wall." Kahina said pointing at the nearest divider.

Silence fell within the group, and the Iris' parents burst out laughing. "Very funny dear." Glen said.

"I wasn't joking. I know it sounds strange but it is true." Silence fell within the group again.

**A/N: So... what did you think? Note - you pronounce Kahina as Ka-high-na. In case you were interested. If you liked this chapter and want me to carry on this story please follow, favourate and review!**


	2. Learning about Hogwarts

**A/N: Wow! this story is getting tons of views already! Please don't forget to check out my other stories as well! Thank you to Scaer for reviewing! And thank you to: Ferrel Drath and for favouriting this story; also last but not least thank you to Ferrel Dreath, Scaer, buford12, bumblebeehbh and thatpottergirl101 for following this story! It really does mean a lot to me.**

And so Iris and her parents ran through a brick wall.

Even now afterwards Iris didn't believe it, she had ran _through_ a brick wall. And now she was standing in a compartment of a magical old fashioned steam train on its way to a boarding school for witches and wizards. If she looked out of the window of the train compartment she could see her parents standing on the magical platform that shouldn't really exist but somehow does. Her parents were talking to Kahina's parents and seemed to be getting on very well with the witch and wizard.

Yep.

Talk about sensory overload.

"Hey!" Kahina's soothing voice snapped Iris out of her daydream. "The train is about to pull out, there is a tradition that when the train leaves you must wave to your parents from the window." She explained. Iris smiled and just as Kahina predicted Iris felt the train start to slowly pull away from the platform. turning to look out of the window Iris waved to her parents. She was glad that she had made friends with Kahina, it made this whole process much easier, having someone there to show her what to do.

Once the station was out of sight Iris turned to Kahina who was sitting across from her. "Could you... I mean would you mind telling me what will happen when we arrive?" She asked.

Kahina smiled at the younger girl. "Of course I don't mid silly, well when we get nearer the castle we will have to get changed in to our robes, mine will have a blue tie as I am in ravenclaw, but yours will have a black tie until the sorting ceremony. Then when we arrive I will get a coach to the castle because I am a secound year, but you will go on a boat ride with the other first years, you will be shown the way by Hagrid, he is the senior games keeper and Magical creatures teacher. Don't worry, I will take you to him when we get there. Once you get to the castle you will wait outside the dining hall until headmistress McGonagall has finished her speech, then you will come in and one by one you will have the sorting hat placed on your head and the hat will put you in one of the three houses." Iris nodded her head and tried to remember all of the information she had just been given.

"What are the three houses?" Iris asked, curious and eager for more information on this mysterious and complicated magical school.

"There is Grythindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I am in Ravenclaw; Ravenclaw's colour is blue and its animal is an eagle, Ravenclaw prizes intelligence and academic excellence. Meanwhile Hufflepuff's colour is yellow, their animal a badger and they prize loyalty. Then there is Grythindor, their colour is red and their animal a lion, they prize bravery." Kahina explained slowly so that Iris could keep up.

"And the sorting hat will decide which house I get put in?" Iris clarified.

"Yep." Kahina popped the p.

* * *

><p>"Do you need help with your tie?" Kahina asked looking over and seeing Iris struggling. They were five minutes away from Hogwarts and they had just changed in to their robes.<p>

"Yes please." Iris said, giving up the fight with her tie.

"Here." Kahina showed Iris how to tie it properly.

"Ah, well I was going to try that next." Iris said.

The older girl chuckled. "Sure you were."

"I was!"

"I totally believe you."

"Shut up!" Iris laughed.

"Come on, they will take our bags to our rooms for us." Kahina said showing Iris the exit off of the train. "I will take you to Hagrid." Iris didn't think she needed help finding him as there wasn't many half-giants shouting 'first years over here', but she appreciated the gesture none the less. "I will leave you with him now." Kahina said. "I will see you at the sorting ceremony."

"Bye. And thank you."

"It was no problem, see you then." And with that Iris was on her own, well as on your own as you can be in a crowd of nervous and curious first years.

**A/N: I love this charter! Kahina is so nice. i know I created her but still, I am in awe of her. Next chapter will go in to more detail on what exactly happened to slytherin, so until then: Goodbye! And please don't forget to follow, favourate and review.**


	3. Boats

**A/N: Wow, this story is going amazing! Please don't forget to follow, favourate and review! And check out my other story Dimension Jumping too. I am also sorry that this took so long to update, I had written a whole chapter when my computer crashed and I lost all of my documents on it, so I had to spend all week desperately redoing two years worth of course work because I hadn't made back ups. But here it is. Finally.**

"Fir' years! Is tha' all of yer? Hold still will yer, I need to count yer!" The group of confused, excited and nervous eleven years old's quietened almost immediately at the half giant's shout. They all stood perfectly still and in silence in the few secounds it took the Care Of Magical Creatures professor to count them.

"Good yer all 'ere. Now com' on." Hagrid turned around and walked away with out another word, Iris and the other first years all quickly scrambled to keep up with him.

When they reached the boats Iris scrambled on the nearest boat with a girl with long dark hair and cold icey grey eyes and a boy with sun lightened blond hair and chocolate brown eyes. The boy grabbed a paddle and Iris and grabbed the other one, they were about to start rowing when the boat started moving on its own accord.

"The boats are charmed so that they row themselves." The girl with the icey eyes said, her tone was not unfriendly, but it was not very warm either. Iris was not sure what to think of the girl, she was inclined to dislike her straight away but Iris wanted toget to know the girl better before she made any judgements about her. _After all,_Iris said to herself, _she might just be tired from the journey, missing her parents and worried about moving to the school. _

After what felt like an eternity of semi awkward silence they heard Hagrids call: "Yer should be able t' see 'Ogwarts in a sec .Jus' over there." As he spoke he pointed in the direction that the boats were traveling in. And true to Hagrid's word as Iris' eyes followed the direction that he was pointing in a magnificent castle came in to view from behind a forest of large dark trees.

Iris had to hold in a gasp of pure amazement when she saw the castle. It was made of a mix of large ancient-looking light sandy/browny coloured stone bricks and slightly newer looking reddish large stone bricks. The contrast between the two brick types was extremely obvious, but they blended together very well. The roof - or should she say roofs - were made of blue-ish slate. The sky was pitch black behind the castle except a scattering of stars. The castle however had lights on in every window and every door, which made it stand out like a beacon in to the night. It was for lack of a better word, mesmerising.

Iris was suddenly jolted out of her dazed state, that she had entered upon catching sight of the school she would be living in, when the boat knocked gentely against the docks. She carefully got off the boats with only a small splash of water hitting her robes. A girl on one of the other boats however was not so lucky, as she lifted her foot off the boat to put it on the dock a wave hit the boat and she toppled in to the water. Hagrid immediately reached in to the water and pulled out the soaked and spluttering girl.

After Hagrid had checked that the girl was all right and that everyone else had safely out of the boats and on to the dry land he started to lead them up a small hill, Iris as she walked, looked over at the girl that had fallen in to the lake; she looked like she was about to cry. Iris gritted her teeth when she realised that everyone else was ignoring this fact. So she decided to take matters in to her own hands.

Hanging back slightly Iris started walking directly next to the unfortunate eleven year old. "Hey." She said.

"Hi." The wet girl said timidly.

"Your shivering." Iris observed. " Here, wear my spare robes." She said, holding out the robes to the girl.

"Were did you get those?" The shy girl asked, looking up at Iris curiously.

"There was a spare set in my compartment. Here, they are dry." Iris said persuasively.

"Thanks." The girl said, looking up and making eye contact with Iris." You really didn't need to do that."

" It's ok, I would have looked like a bit of an idiot holding a spare pair of robes. I only brought them out because I thought that someone would fall in, apparently someone does every other year or so." Iris said to reassure the poor girl. " I am Iris by the way."

The girl smiled and started taking off her wet robes so that she was only standing there in her top, tie and skirt, she took the dry robes from Iris. "Juliet."

**A/N: I am so sorry that am leaving it there, but I really needed to get this posted. As well as all my other stories that need updating.**


	4. The sorting

**A/N: *grins evilly* I have kept you waiting so long, but will it actually happen this chapter? Will she be sorted? Only time will tell...**

Iris kept perfectly still as she waited for the giant grand oak doors that lead in to the Grand Hall. What she was completely unaware of was that this made her stand out in the anxious hubble of first years like a Malfoy in the Burrow, all of the other First years were fiddling or moving about in absolute terror and nervousness.

Then the doors opened and Hagrid becomed them in to the hall. Slowly the group moved forwards, no one wanted to stand at the front of the group. Finally they reached the front of the room and Headmistress McGonagall smiled down at them. She held out a crisp piece of parchment. In a sharp voice she began reading:

"Brandhist, Gemma."

A chubby girl walked up to the rickety wooden stool, she sat and just like Kahina said she would the headmistress placed the torn old hat on her head, less then a minute later the hat boomed out:

"Hufflepuff!" The yellow table cheered and the smiling girl all but ran to her newly assigned seat on the wooden bench.

And so it went on, as the first years went up one by one Iris looked around the room, just as Kahina had said there were three tables, each with students sitting on them. As she looked around see searched for Kahina, just as she noticed the smiling girl however, she heard McGonagall call her name.

Walking up to the stool, Iris suddenly felt herself become extremely nervous. As she sat she looked up slightly at the headmistress who smiled warmly and reassuringly at her before placing the hat on Iris' head.

_"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?"_ The hat said to Iris.  
><span>

At first Iris was shocked and confused at the others students lack of reaction to the hat talking, but she quickly realised that she was the only one who could hear the hats words. "_Iris. My name is Iris."_ She told the hat, remembering that he was still patiently waiting for her answer.

_"Hmmmm... Let us see then Iris. You are loyal, but no, not quite loyal enough to be in Hufflepuff. Smart? Yes, but only average. And you are brave too, yet still afraid of the dark. Ohhh, this is a tricky one. Wait, you are ambitious I see, would make a great leader; you are cunning too." _The hat stopped his assessment of her and pondered these facts for a good 15 secounds. _"I have come to my decision. But before I yell it out I want you to know that I am sorry, but as the great Albus Dumbledore once said: It is for the greater good."_

_"Wait what do you mean you're sor-"_

"Slytherin!"

The hall was thrown in to confusion, with the majority of the students confused and wondering what this 'Slytherin' was, and the handful who had learnt about it when they learnt about the founders of Hogwarts going in to shock. The teachers immediately started to quite down the students whispers, well those of them that weren't in shock themselves or trying to have a look at the girl who had brought the ancient house back from what they had thought was death but apparently was just slumber.

McGonagall wasted no time in removing the hat from Iris' head. she looked down at the small muggle born with wide, unbelieving eyes. Iris stood up, off of the stool, awkwardly. She racked her brains for information on Slytherin, but came up empty handed, Kahina had never mentioned that house to her. She looked around the now silent hall before turning to the headmistress and in a undertone asking: "Where do I sit?"

No sooner had the words left her mouth when the tales upon which the students were sitting moved. There was uproar as students tried to cling on before they fell off their seats. When the tables stopped moving the gap left behind was exactly a quarter of the space, then a wooden table, identical to the other three in every way rose out of the ground. When it had fully risen there was a eat of silence and then the green and silver banners of Slytherin unrolled all around it.

Iris looked again at McGonagall who nodded. Iris went and sat down at the table, she did look a bit of a funny sight, sitting there all on her own. She stared down at her hands, confused and slightly scared by what was going on.

The sorting continued, but Iris did not dare look up. She could feel peoples eyes on her the entire time, though the gazes were more curious in nature then hostile, it still put Iris on edge. Once the sorting was over McGonagall made a small, quick speech and then hurriedly went to the teachers table were she joined in discussion with several of the other professors.

The food suddenly appeared in front of Iris, and she gladly took a couple slices of the chicken, she also took a portion of vegetables. Then she looked up around the hall, just as she had expected everyone bar some of the professors were to distracted with the food to continue staring at her. Of course now and again she would catch a curious student looking her way, they would immediately look away when they saw that Iris had noticed their staring though.

Iris was confused, she had no idea what this Slithering house was, but from the stares and whispers she felt like she had done something wrong. She was also ashamed, worried and scared. She had no idea what was going on. In the giant hall full of students and professors she managed to feel like she was all alone and lost.

This idea made her suddenly put off of her food. Pushing her plate away from her Iris sat in silence as the food vanished and desert came and went. Then she saw McGonagall stand up once desert was finished.

"Now you have all eaten I have a few words to say - don't worry, I will make this quick. I would like to welcome the first years to Hogwarts and to welcome the rest of you back to school, I hope you have had a wonderful year. Would prefects please escort the students back to their common rooms for the night, and I will see you all in lessons tomorrow!" With that McGonagall walked back to the staff table and the students all very loudly got up and started walking away.

Iris looked around, she had no idea who or what these prefects were but she didn't see anyone walking towards her - wait - she did see someone, Kahina! Kahina walked up and smiled at Iris, but there was something odd about her smile, it seemed slightly forced.

"I think that the professors haven't realised that you don't have a prefect. I would show you how to get to your common room myself, but I don't know where it is and anyway I don't know the password, here lets go tell Headmistress McGonagall."

Iris gratefully stood up and followed the older girl to the Headmistresses seat. When they got there McGonagall looked up from her conversation with one of the other professors, a man with pale skin and platinum blonde hair. McGonagall looked confused as to why two students wanted to speak to her instead of going straight to their common rooms. "Can I help you?"

" Yes, you see Iris doesn't have a prefect to show her the way to her common room." Kahina explained respectfully.

McGonagall looked shocked. " Of course, thank you. I will deal with this now, you may go to your common room with the rest of your house." She said to Kahina, who then politely agreed and hugged Iris reassuringly before leaving the grand hall.

Iris turned to McGonagall and looked nervously at the headmistress. "Well, give me one second and I will get someone to show you the way." McGonagall said to Iris sharply before she turned and walked up to a group of professors who were chating near the entrance to the hall. The headmistress spoke with the professors briefly before the group had what looked like an extremely awkward silence, finally the blonde professor that had been talking to the headmistress before Iris and Kahina had walked up said something and he and McGonagall exchanged a few words before making their way back to Iris.

"Iris, I would like you to meet Professor Malfoy, he will be your head of house and he will be the one you report to." McGonagall said, gesturing to the blonde man.

Iris looked at the professor, he looked kind, but there was an underlying hardness in his face that made Iris decide not to cross him. "I will show you to your common room now." He said in a voice that only came from a well-to-do upbringing.

"Yes sir." Iris said. "But can I just ask, what is Slytherin? I thought there was only three school houses."

Professor Malfoy regarded her oddly. "There are four, but surely your parents told you that?"

Iris looked at the ground sheepishly. "No sir. My parents are muggles you see, we had no idea about Hogwarts, or even magic until Headmistress McGonagall visited us over the summer." She explained.

Professor Malfoy looked at her oddly again, though this time Iris was sure she sensed something else in his gaze, shock? Surprise? He cleared his throat before saying: "Well come along then, let's get you to the common room." Iris wasn't sure why but, he seemed almost friendlier now that he knew that her parents were muggles.

**A/N: There you go, a lovely long chapter for you! I didn't mean for this to happen, but I just got so caught up in the writing and I just couldn't stop. Do you guys ever get that? Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, and what a shock, her being put in Slytherin, I never would have guessed. *sarcastic smile* Anyway thank you guys so much for all your amazing support, it really does mean a lot to me.**

**BeASlumberingDragon, Whiterose 788, Peoples and Scaer, thank you all so much for your reviews, the positive support was great inspiration and motivation for this chapter. Thank you all.**

**Thank you also to: BeASlumberingDragon, Ferrel Drath, iKaterine and for favourating. And Procastinator12, Ferrel Drath, Scaer, buford12, bumblebeehbh, iKaterine and thatpottergirl101 for following my story.**

**I really cant believe how well this story is doing, I never imagined this hen I wrote the first chapter.**


	5. The common room

**A/N: So sorry for the long wait, but here it is... Oh, and I dedicate this chapter to the awesome, amazing, motivational Cake Please. You are awesome girl!**

Iris was slightly creeped out, she seemed to be following Professor Malfoy in to the dungeons. Why was the common room in the dungeons? Or maybe it wasn't, maybe they were going to lock her up? Would they do that? Iris didn't know much about the magical world, but she didn't think that they through people in dungeons... Unless that was whatever 'Slytherin' meant?

These thoughts all ran through her head until Iris was almost giving herself a panick attack. She had to push these dark thoughts from her head and distract herself from them by thinking about all the teachers that were sitting at the head table during the sorting. On the far left had been a pretty yet worried looking lady with slightly bushy hair, she had been talking to Hagrid? Yes, that was his name. He was also talking to a ginger man with a weird face. Then it had been an elderly chubby lady, then professor Malfoy. Then Headmistress McGonagall. But who was next?... Oh! It had been a blonde lady who seemed to be staring in to space, next to her was a man of sixty or so - but his face was covered in scars. Sitting to his right was -

Iris snapped out of her memories when she walked in to something solid, the collision was enough to send her to the ground.

"Daydreaming were we?" The professor asked, looking slightly amused, it was now obvious that he had been what she had walked in to.

Iris got up quickly, her cheeks red with embarrassment. "Yes, I am so sorry." She stammered out. She kicked herself mentally.

"That is okay, just don't let it be a habit." He said. Iris looked around the hallway they were now in, it was a dead end. Professor Malfoy obvious realized what she was thinking. "There is a hidden door here." He said pointing to the stone wall to his right. "You will need a password to enter it each and every time you use the entrance, however you do not need the password to leave the dungeon." He paused so that she could let that sink in. "The last password was 'Superiority'. However since that was last used eleven years ago, we will need to reset it."

He fell in to silence. "Okay, how do we do that?" Iris asked. "Wait, why hasn't it reset itself? I thought it was magic?"

"In order for any of a houses magic to work it needs students. Students are the heart of Hogwarts, when the last Slytherin left the school, the common room and all other Slytherin areas of the school sealed themselves off. No one has been able to enter them for eleven years." He said gravely.

"What about other Slytherins, those who don't go to the school anymore, but were in Slytherin when they did go here?" Iris asked, confused.

The professor chuckled to himself. "You do ask a lot of questions don't you?" He ran his hand over the stone of the wall. "Believe me, many have tried, but no one has been able to get in, whether they were a Slytherin or not. For years many believed that only a heir of Slytherin could ever gain entrance to the room. They however, seem to have been wrong."

"Oh. So how do we reset the password?" Iris asked, taking in all of the information she had just been given and storing it away for further use.

"You have your wand?" At Iris' nod and her getting out of said wand he carried on: "Touch your wand against the wall, just there where those two snake's tongues cross." She did as he said. "Now close your eyes and ask the room for permission to change the password."

Iris frowned. "You want me to _ask_ the _room_ for permission?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yes." He said as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Iris rolled her eyes. "Of course." She muttered to herself. "This is a school full of wizards and witches. Why wouldn't I have to ask a room for permission to change the magical password. A simple key and lock would be just too simple." Despite her mutterings she closed her eyes anyway.

_Hello? Err... common room? Can you hear me? My name is Iris, I need to reset the password, would you mind letting me do that? I was sorted in to Slytherin you see and so I need to enter. Please?_

Even as she thought it she felt stupid. however when she opened her eyes again she saw that the snakes were moving... Wait. What? She wanted to jump back, but stopped herself at the last second as she did not want to risk moving her wand. The two snakes joined up so that they formed a circle. the circle of stone in between them seemed to hum with energy and faintly glowed a dark green. Meanwhile the snakes glowed silver.

"Good. Now the next word you say will be the password for the next term or so." Professor Malfoy said smoothly.

Iris thought about it hard, she had no idea what the password should be. Then it struck her. "Antecedent." She said.

Professor Malfoy smiled. "Unique." He complimented.

As they spoke the stone seemed to melt, revealing the common room.

**A/N: I know that this chapter is a bit of a filler, but it needed to be done.**


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